Not So Mediocre After All
by JoMiSm
Summary: Spin off of 'The Junior SHIELD Academy' with the character of Elena Hill! You find out her backstory, including the fate of Elizabeth Hill, the sister of Maria Hill.


_**Elena Hill is from my series about Annie Smith. Elena really has an interesting backstory and I thought that it would be cool to do a oneshot about it. Enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer: I own the idea but not Maria Hill or Natasha Romanoff. Elena and her mother, Elizabeth, are OCs. **_

* * *

It was a normal night for Elena.

She was only four years old, too young to understand what was going on around her. When her babysitter came over, she had no idea that it was Natasha Romanoff in disguise so that no one would recognize her but Elena's mother. When she asked what "Auntie Maria" did, she was told that she was a police officer. When she cried because she wasn't allowed to play outside with the other kids, she wasn't told that it was because someone was hunting them; it was because 'darling, you could be hit by a car.'

While Elizabeth Hill was busy making sure that her daughter and herself were safe, she didn't notice Elena's astonishing ability to remember numbers and even add and multiply and subtract and divide at such a young age. She was a genius... and no one knew.

Still, even the smartest genius, at four years old, will believe what their mother tells them. Elena never saw that night coming.

Elena's babysitter came over just like normal. Natasha was disguised as "Jennifer" and all the neighbors knew her as such. None had a clue that she was a SHIELD agent. She had her blonde hair (a wig) constantly up in a ponytail, somewhat of her trademark, and Elena liked to pretend to braid it (she was really twisting it and then showing 'Jennifer' proudly).

"Hey, Jen!" Elizabeth said. She had a smile on her face but her eyes looked worried. Her eyes always looked worried.

"Hi, Liz." Natasha said, her expression reassuring. There was no one better to trust with her daughter than Natasha Romanoff. She had the whole 'good with kids' thing down to a T and she was perfectly capable of defending both herself and others.

"Mommy! Don't go!" Elena cried out suddenly, clinging to her leg. Her mother had been gone so much recently... Elena missed her.

"I'll be back home soon, darling." Elizabeth said, gently prying Elena off with a pat to the head. "I love you."

And then she was gone.

She was going to finish the final preparations for a safe house that night. Being the sister of Maria Hill had its definite downsides: being hunted down to get to Maria is one of them. Maria was always on the helicarrier or in a very secure SHIELD location, so they tried to go for the next best thing. Some wanted a bargaining tool, some wanted to kill her for revenge...but all intended very bad things for Elizabeth, just because of her last name.

After Elizabeth left, Natasha lifted Elena's disappointed form from where she slumped on the floor. "Come on, sweetheart."

Elena was really sad for a while, but Natasha quickly ended that by saying "Well, Elena, if you're going to be pouty, I suppose I can do my _own _hair..."

"No! No! Let me, Jennieeeeee!" Elena begged, immediately distracted.

Natasha sighed theatrically. "Fine... I guess if you've cheered up..."

Elena hastily smiled. "I'm cheered up! I'm cheered up!"

Natasha laughed and turned slightly on the couch so that Elena could reach her hair with ease, and complemented Elena on what a pretty job she was doing when she was proudly showed a big tangle-y twisty 'braid.'

Elena and Natasha had about the usual time; Elena continued to play with Natasha's hair, they snacked on some M&M's, played with Elena's ragged stuffed panda bear...

Then there was a knock on the door.

It wouldn't have been unusual if the knock hadn't come an hour or so early... Elizabeth would have called Natasha if she'd been home that quickly. Natasha glanced through the peep hole quickly.

Oh no.

It wasn't Elizabeth.

Natasha backed away from the door quickly. "Elena," Natasha said softly. "Can you do something for me?" Elena nodded, looking up at her questioningly. "Can you go hide upstairs, please? Hide really well, like we're playing hide-and-seek, okay? And don't make a sound until I come for you. Can you do that?"

Elena was puzzled but she nodded and ran up the stairs quietly.

Natasha quickly made sure the extra strength security bolts were locked (they were) and pulled her knife out of its sheath... she would've had a gun, but she was afraid that Elena would've found it when they were playing. Natasha hoped that they would see that she wasn't letting them in and go away... or maybe they'd think that they weren't home.

No such luck.

The man did not bother to knock again. There was just suddenly glass flying and a giant man dressed entirely in black stepping through the window. Natasha flew at him, managing to block most of his blows, but he pulled a gun and shot at her. She continued to fight through the pain (no bullet is going to faze Natasha Romanoff, not when she is on a mission) but when she felt dizzy, she realized that the bullet was poisoned, and poisoned heavily enough to get to even her, with her enhancers.

"Вы сын -" she launched herself at him with the last of her strength and he sidestepped her, her knife grazing his forearm. She hit the ground hard, not getting back up.

The man then calmly brushed himself off and walked up the stairs.

* * *

Elizabeth knew something was wrong the instant she pulled up to the house. It was pretty late, but the lights were still on in the front hallway leading to the door-meaning Natasha'd been to the front door and then not turned off the light. That was not like her.

Elizabeth got even more scared when she brushed against the front door and it opened without any resistance.

_Oh, God, don't let my daughter be dead. Please, God, let her be okay, let Elena be okay..._

She took one cautious step through the door and was greeted by Natasha's bleeding body lying over to the side. It was obviously left there, not moved at all. A message. _We're here._

Elizabeth crept up the stairs slowly, fearing what she would find. She wouldn't be able to take it if she found her precious four-year-old dead in her room.

_Let her be okay. Let her be gone. Let her be far away from here._

As Elizabeth stepped into Elena's room, she was relieved; she wasn't lying there dead, so maybe she'd gotten away.

There was no noise, no warning, before the shot came from behind Elizabeth. She cried out as the bullet struck her, but was dead before she hit the ground.

Elena, under the bed, stared in horror into her mother's lifeless eyes, mere inches from her face.

The man walked away in a leisurely manner; he'd been told to leave no survivors but had not been told about the kid. He had no clue that Elena was mere feet away, crying silently because Natasha'd told her to keep quiet.

Elena had also been told to stay there until Natasha came for her, so she did, fearing that the heavy footsteps would come back for her and unable to take her eyes from her mother.

It was nearly an hour later that Natasha woke up.

She wasn't supposed to wake up at all, but enhancers are wonderful things that very few people know about. She immediately knew that the danger was gone, but that something was terribly, terribly wrong. "Elena? Elizabeth?" she called, running up the stairs.

"Jennie!" was the muffled and tearful reply. Natasha ran into Elena's room and stopped short in shock at what she saw. Elizabeth Hill was dead on the floor, and she had been that way for long enough that Natasha immediately knew that there was no hope.

"Elena?" Natasha asked softly.

There was a pause before Elena's voice, young and scared, said "Can I come out now?"

Natasha carefully kept her voice calm. "Yes, honey, you can come out now."

Elena slowly crawled out from under the bed, running straight into Natasha's arms. "Mommy, help Mommy, please help her, she won't move-"

Natasha led Elena out of the room, closing the door behind her. Elena didn't understand and she tugged against Natasha's firm grip. "No! Go back! Help Mommy, she's hurt, help her, help her, help her..."

Natasha led Elena downstairs and gently broke the news to her; there wasn't anything that could help Elizabeth now. Elena sobbed against Natasha's shoulder.

* * *

"Maria."

It was Natasha's voice that Maria Hill heard in her ear, and she knew as soon as she heard it that it was too late. Maria stood, frozen, in the middle of a busy room full of people talking to her and to others, but she heard none of it.

There was silence, and then: "Tell me she's okay."

A long pause.

"Romanoff. _Tell me that she's okay." _The people around Maria were starting to notice now, starting to stare, the room quieting down a bit.

"I can't."

Maria's posture instantly went from rigidly alert to slumping in defeat; she brought her hands up to her face.

**Regain your composure. **

_Your sister just died._

**Don't let the agents see you cry.**

_The last bit of family you had in this world._

**People are staring. Get it together.**

_And her daughter, she was only four-_

Maria slowly brought her trembling hand to her earpiece again. The room was so silent that you could've heard a pin drop. "And Elena?" Could Maria Hill, fearless second-in-command at SHIELD, sound so lost?

"She's right here, she's fine." Natasha said.

"Natasha, tell me the truth-"

Maria was interrupted by the only voice she wanted to hear at the moment. "Auntie Maria?"

Her voice softened but her look stayed the same. "Yes?"

"When are you coming?" Poor Elena's voice sounded just as lost as Maria's.

Her heart dropped. This little child had no one but her left. She had to be strong. "Right now." Maria said. Without a single word of explanation to anyone, she was gone.

* * *

There are more children than you'd think whose parents are killed in front of them. Elena is now among those few. Even among those few, though, she stands out because her terrible night was not spent with the bright lights and loud noises of police cars but the silent and sneaky SHIELD vans that came to investigate.

The moment Maria stepped out of the car, she had to remain composed for the sake of the four-year-old who was instantly by her side.

"What is going to happen to me, Auntie Maria? Where will I go?" Elena sniffled, plastered to her Aunt's side.

"I don't know, Elena," Maria replied, picking up the child. "But I promise you: wherever you go next, you will be safe."

Maria _would not _allow this to happen to her family again. Never.

* * *

_**And you know what else? Maria will never forgive herself for the death of her sister.**_

_**So now you know. Elena's past is more traumatic than you think... especially when you think about the fact that Elena was trapped for about an hour with her dead mom staring vacantly at her. **_

_**Could you handle that?**_

_**-JoMiSm**_


End file.
